Sleep, dreams and life...

There's never a night when I am not awake past midnight. Generally it's my laptop for company. Most of the time I am chatting, if I am not chatting, it's something else. Like trying out new games, or downloading lots of software and trying them out, or MP3's or video clips. Recently it's been ebay.com.

But I did not always have a laptop. Ok, then it was my PC. But what I mean is, I didn't always have a computer. Then I used to stay awake late watching TV. But I didn't always have a TV either.

There was a simpler time, when I didn't have a 500-channel-cable-connection-TV with a CD player and about 500 video CDs. In those days I used to spend a lot of time reading. I can recall many a years that I have spent, sitting, half-sitting, lying on my cot, with a pillow under my head and a book before my eyes. I didn't say "a book in my hand" because it was not always in my hand. If you get really tired lying your back you can turn over, rest your chest on the pillow and read the book by placing it directly under your eyes on the floor..lol.

But the point is I never was the "early to sleep and early to rise" kind of guy. Those wonderful novels used to fascinate me so much I never wanted to go to sleep.

The main villain in the last James Bond flick, "Die Another Day" is rumoured never to sleep. When questioned by reporters on it he says that life is so short he doesn't want to waste it sleeping, and that since he can't sleep and dream he has to bring all his dreams to life.

On the other hand are the wise people who say that sleep rejuvenates us and dreams are harbingers of so many new, exciting, life-giving things.

I would tend to believe the second, but the funny thing is I never want to go to sleep until, like a child, I have no energy left to play anymore. What reminded me of it was that last night, I was reading Robert Heinlein's "The Puppet Masters" which is as fantastic a piece of science fiction as any. I stayed awake till almost 1 a.m. and then had to go to sleep. If I didn't have to go to office the next morning, I would have finished the remaining 100-odd pages. :)